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Memory sticks: When is it too late to bother?

By David Robson

Even if you are well and truly past your student days, your memory can still do great things, with a bit of effort. Just this year, John Seamon at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, published a study of a septuagenarian who started training his memory at the age of 58. The former high-school teacher, known in the study as JB, can now recite all 60,000 words of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost with amazing accuracy (Memory, vol 18, p 498).

JB had shown no exceptional predisposition to memorisation beforehand, and he didn’t even use mnemonics – just the brute force of willpower and over 3000 hours of daily practice. “Many other people could do it, with enough time and effort,” says Seamon.

As they say, it’s never to late to learn. Even if Milton is not to your taste and you lack JB’s perseverance, these tried-and-tested tips should help you get the most out of your memory with the least effort, whatever your age.